i can smell it and taste it... it's that close

you know how some smells or foods remind you of home, or your childhood, or some other specific place? there is one thing that truly rings in christmas for me. it's baking "piparkukas" (the latvian version of ginger bread cookies). in latvian it means 'pepper cakes'. and the cookie does hold true to it's name. they're more peppery and spicy then ginger bread. i love them. especially my mom's version. but i think that every kid loves their own mom's version of "piparkukas" or "piragi" (which are another christmas thing for me. they're little bacon buns. shaped like perogies. but not boiled. baked.) this year unfortunately, my mother is in toronto and her piparkuku recipie is back home in latvia. she's borrowed a recipie from our latvian neighbour (who also has very good piparkukas!) and now has spent the last three hours trying the doe out, mixing a little of this and that. trying it out again. adding some magic potion again. and so on... i wonder how long it will take before she's satisfied. my mother is a perfectionist, in some ways at least! i've just spent the last two hours sitting in the corner of the kitchen with a glass of milk, trying a cookie from each pan, doing the taste test. helping spread the egg on the tops, before they go into the oven. i'm trying to remember the cookies from my childhood. but what i do remember is my mom and dad caramelizing sugar for her cookies. my dad being stressed out about it not being dark enough. and myself being told not to leave the chair, because hot, melted sugar is not something i would want to feel on my skin. i love those old bits of memories from long ago. just like old pictures. we recently got some old pictures of steve from his mom. they're great! the old colour schemes. yellowed backgrounds. and clothing from a whole different era. i always wonder what my pictures will be like another forty years from now?

kaspar's second tooth came in yesterday. it must have broken through over the course of the night. in the morning we were finishing our christmas cards and kaspar was sitting in my lap trying to bite the envelopes and the pen and finally he sunk his teeth into my palm. yikes. now he has two little sharp, ridged edges on the bottom of his jaw. his bites now hurt. our necks suffer. so do our hands. his own fingers do, too. but, he likes to bite more then ever. is that a sign that there are more to come?

tonight we had some friends over and kaspar opened his first christmas present. it was this awesome bowl, in the shape of a car and it makes car noises, when you touch it with a spoon or move it. i wish they would have had those when i was a kid! i remember my making car noises as the spoon apporached my little brother's mouth. and when my sister was old enough to eat, i had to do the same. what will i do with my well trained skills of making car sounds now? he's got a bowl and a spoon that does it all!!!